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The Kanoria Centre for Arts (KCA), a pioneering institution in arts and culture, is celebrating its 40th anniversary with the launch of the ‘Urmila Kailash Black Box’ – a new 1656 sq ft multifunctional space designed to host a wide range of artistic events. Sangita Jindal will inaugurate the space on 15 November, adding to […]
Everyone takes music for granted now. With the smartphone, we can summon up any kind of music we want, from anywhere in the world. But as Vidya Shah reminds us, this was not always the case. “Till the early 1900s, access to music was limited and restricted to live performances,” she says. “It was only […]
This is a story of incredible grit, determination and hard work. Maya Bhammar, 25, was six years old when he was afflicted with polio. He developed fever and the doctor in the village gave him an injection. When he woke up the next morning, he could not use his legs. Bewildered and traumatised, his family […]
Natarani’s six-day theatre festival, Six and The City, ended with a lively performance of the play Love & Lavani on Sunday. Though all the songs in the 130-minute play are Marathi, the sentiment behind them are not hard to understand and the Ahmedabadi audience was thoroughly engaged by the performance. Egged on by the performers, they whistled, hooted, clapped […]
Located on Rajpath Bungalow Road in Bodakdev, Shreedev Enterprises is a medium-sized grocery shop that has always stocked Amul ice cream. It even carries the Amul sign board over its awning. Early this month however, Shreedev’s customers were pleasantly surprised to see a Hocco ice cream freezer installed in the store’s premises. Positioned at the […]
The Samara Art Gallery is hosting a solo exhibition by renowned artist, entrepreneur and social advocate Rupesh C. Shah, titled ‘Journey’. The exhibition, inaugurated on October 2, 2024, is open to the public from October 3 to 6, offering a unique glimpse into Shah’s artistic evolution and his tribute to the enduring message of Mahatma […]
If the measure of a city is the art and artists it manages to attract from other parts of the world, Ahmedabad seems to be faring well. Over the past year, the city has seen several national and international art shows, including an exhibition of Dacca artists at iRam Art in July, an international art […]
The Darpana Academy of Performing Arts inaugurated a new performance venue, Gallery at Natarani, on Saturday, with Firefly Women, a dance spectacle on the theme of the persecution of political dissenters by the government. Speaking on the occasion, Director Mallika Sarabhai said the new air-conditioned venue would allow Natarani to extend its season beyond the […]
Anjali (name changed),13, came to us with the problem of excessive phone use. She would get angry and even physically violent if her family members tried to restrict phone use. She had created an Instagram account without her parents’ knowledge through which she was communicating with strangers. Anjali developed a phone addiction after a change […]
It is unusually quiet at the Bhadbhada crematorium in Bhopal this afternoon in March, an oppressive summer lurking, the congenial winter long gone. Not a soul in sight. I saunter past the empty rows of cast iron cremation stands. Only at the farther end — where the lone electric incinerator stands — a couple of staffers, seated on […]
Exiled to the island of St Elba, Napoleon had time to define and reflect on the strategies that had won him the many battles he had fought before his defeat at Waterloo. The crux of Napoleon’s strategy, translated from French, was “we engage and then we see.” Napoleon would engage his enemies in battle and […]
Long before personal computers and formal management information systems, Sam Walton instituted a strategy execution system that would endure for forty years at WalMart. Walton then owned 17 stores and the managers in charge of each store, along with the company’s eight buyers, would meet every week with an eight-point agenda. The first point in […]
Many iconic brands have emerged from Gujarat, but the one most closely identified with the state is surely Amul. Amul symbolises Gujarat in the popular mind, just as McDonald’s symbolises America. Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns the brand, has reinforced this perception in its widely aired “Taste of India” campaign, which features […]
Meghna spoke up courageously in front of the local authorities telling them that the roof of her village school leaked whenever it rained. Responding promptly, the Panchayat Development Officer approved repair work for the school roof. When Nitesh saw that several public taps in his village were out of order, he decided to call the […]
Launched in 1988, Symphony has survived and thrived over 35 years to become an iconic Gujarat-based global brand. Legend has it that the brand was born of a dinner table conversation between Symphony’s founder-chairman Achal Bakeri and his father, construction magnate Anil Bakeri. The Bakeris had just installed an air cooler in their new house, […]
When the Baroda-based Alembic Glass launched Yera in 1965, glass tableware was still a novelty. Brass was then the material of choice for tumblers and plates in Indian households and it was only gradually being replaced by stainless steel. Glassware was limited to a Westernised elite and was mostly imported. Alembic Glass was originally set […]
In the late 70s, there were intriguing stories built around the closely guarded “secret formula” for Coca Cola. Legend has it that the Janata government of the day demanded the American company reveal its recipe if it wanted to operate in India. Coke refused and was consequently expelled from the country in 1977. Those days, […]
In the first part of a six-part VO! series on the history of Gujarat’s top brands, we feature Rasna: Launched in 1978, Rasna is among the most iconic brands to come out of Gujarat. Through the 80 and 90s, the brand grew to become one of the most popular Indian consumer products ever. Backed by […]
There is something about the New Year. It brings a sense of hope, a feeling of resurgence and a quest for new beginnings. That’s probably why people make New Year resolutions. They seek to change old habits, don new hats and take on the coming year with positivity and optimism. But do New Year resolutions […]
In the year 1908, when Vidyagauri Nilkanth sang Vande Mataram at the annual session of the Indian National Congress in Ahmedabad, she demolished a taboo. At the time, no ordinary woman dared sing on stage in front of a crowd. But then, Vidyaben was no ordinary woman — she was the first woman to graduate […]
